UPDATE 3-Syria's Western-backed opposition elects new president

(Adds quote from Bahra In paragraph 4)

BEIRUT, July 9 (Reuters) - Syria's Western-backed
opposition, the National Coalition, elected Hadi al-Bahra, chief
negotiator at the Geneva peace talks, as its new president on
Wednesday after a three-day meeting in Istanbul.

The United States and other key powers have designated the
National Coalition as the main body representing the opposition
to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but it has little power
inside Syria where disparate militant groups outside its control
hold ground.

Bahra, a U.S-trained industrial engineer, has close ties to
regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, as did his predecessor Ahmad
Jarba, who stood down after serving the maximum two six-month
terms.

"We will not give up the fundamentals of the revolution and
our demands are freedom and human dignity," Bahra told a news
conference in Istanbul on Wednesday evening.

Bahra's election is unlikely to have any impact on the
situation in Syria or within opposition ranks for now, though
France - the first Western country to back the Coalition -
welcomed his appointment and said it was still striving for a
political resolution of the conflict.

The United States also applauded Bahra's selection. "We look
to President-elect Bahra and other new leaders to reach out to
all Syrian communities and to strengthen unity amongst moderate
opposition institutions," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen
Psaki said in a statement.

Infighting within the opposition coalition has undermined
rebel efforts to take on forces loyal to Assad, playing into the
hands of rival, more hardline groups that include foreign
militants, such as the Islamic State.

Talks sponsored by the United States and Russia in
Switzerland to end the three-year-old civil war stalled after
two rounds in January and February, when the coalition and
Assad's representatives failed to make substantive progress.

Bahra, born in Damascus in 1959, has worked in Saudi Arabia
as a businessman running hospitals and a Jeddah-based media and
software distribution company, a biography on the National
Coalition's website said.

While welcoming Bahra's election, the French Foreign
Ministry said Paris would not change its stance of providing
civilian and non-lethal military aid. The rebels say they need
heavy weaponry to change the balance on the ground in Syria.

"We will continue to provide support to help (the Coalition)
fight oppression and terrorism," spokesman Romain Nadal said in
a daily online briefing.

"This aid aims to help the moderate opposition protect the
population against attacks by the regime and terrorists and
provide basic public services in liberated zones."

A French diplomatic source said there was no real political
will in Paris to increase military support and that the French
wanted to focus on humanitarian efforts.
(Reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Ahmed Tolba in Cairo,
John Irish in Paris and Missy Ryan in Washington; Editing by
Gareth Jones, G Crosse and Mohammad Zargham)